Instead of scorching down the back straight with a baton in his hand, Chambers was left clutching at thin air before grinding to an exasperated halt as GB lead-off runner Christian Malcolm failed to transfer it safely into his grasp.

Team-mates James Ellington and Mark Lewis-Francis were reduced to the role of spectators as the Dutch runners breezed past them to take the gold medal in 38.34 sec. The fact that the winning time was well with the British quartet’s capability only added to the frustration.

Worryingly, it was the fourth time in five championship finals that the British men’s team had been either disqualified or failed to finish, raising doubts about their ability to get the baton around the Olympic Stadium cleanly and quickly enough to challenge for a medal in London in five weeks’ time.

The explanation from Malcolm afterwards was that “it was just one of those things”, but those things have been happening all too frequently on the international stage in the past few years not to cause alarm.

With the notable exception of Britain’s 4 x 100m gold in Athens in 2004, the country’s recent Olympic record in the event is just as sorry. Atlanta 1996, Sydney 2000 and Beijing 2008 all ended in disqualification.

Sunday’s meltdown completed a woeful weekend for British sprint relay running after the women’s 4 x 100m team were disqualified on Saturday when Hayley Jones ran out of her lane – a result that had even more serious ramifications because it meant they dropped out of the world’s top 16 and failed to qualify for the London Olympics.

The British men were never in danger of that happening with a world ranking of four going into the championships, but their performance raised serious doubts about their ability to justify their world status and challenge for the podium.

Teenager Adam Gemili will add some extra speed to the squad when he returns from the World Junior Championships in two weeks’ time but nothing but they will need nothing less than a technically perfect performance against the might of countries such as Jamaica and the United States.

Malcolm was quick to accept the blame for Sunday’s mishap but insisted it was just a one-off and not the result of any lack of practice.

“I take responsibility for what happened,” he said. “I got thrown out coming round the turn and lost momentum. It’s my job to get the baton over into Dwain and that didn’t happen. It’s always the incoming runner’s job to try to get the baton in and on this occasion I didn’t do it.

“It was our opportunity as a team to stake a place for the Olympic Games and we’ve missed out as a team. I felt we were really on for it today and I felt we could have won. I’m just gutted. Totally gutted.”

Chambers was also bitterly disappointed but refused to point the finger of blame at Malcolm, who is one of his oldest friends.

“We were all ready to go out there and run really well today,” he said. “We had perfect conditions and great preparation but the cards we were dealt just weren’t great cards. As much as Christian wants to take the blame, we’re all to blame here. We come here as a team and we go out as a team. One falls, we all fall.”

It was not all doom and gloom for Britain as the team added two more silver medals to its overall tally through Jo Pavey in the 10,000m and the men’s 4 x 400m team.

It brought the final total to three golds, three silvers and one bronze – a long way short of the 19 medals Britain won in Barcelona two years ago, though medals were never a priority this time at a championship where most of Britain’s big-names were absent to conserve their energy for the Olympics.

Pavey’s silver, won in a time of 31min 49.83sec behind Portugal’s Dulce Felix, was especially poignant as her only previous international medal was a Commonwealth Games silver for England. It was her first championship medal in a British vest and was achieved in her 39th year.

Her feat was all the more remarkable because, after switching to the marathon two years ago, she only returned to the track in April when she missed out on selection for the Olympic marathon.

As well as the satisfaction of Sunday’s medal, she is now qualified for the Olympics in both the 5,000 and 10,000m and, though the latter is her priority, she may well double up.

J.J Jegede produced the best performance of his career to finish fourth in the long jump with a leap of 8.10m, though an illegal tailwind of 2.4m/s means it will not be recorded as a personal best. It was not enough, however, to secure the necessary qualifying standard for London.